Book delves into Superman's Jewish origins

LOUIS B. PARKS, Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle |
June 28, 2006

Up, Up and Oy Vey, published by Leviathan Press, explores the Jewish roots of many classic superheroes.

With Christian themes doing well at the box office, little wonder Superman Returns plays the Man of Steel as a metaphor for Christ.

"I have sent them (earthlings) you, my only son," declares Superman's ethereal, godlike father at least twice in the movie, which opens today.

And that's kosher. Like Jesus, Superman has Jewish origins.

Superman was invented in 1938 Cleveland, Ohio, by Jerry Siegel and Joel Shuster, Jewish immigrants' sons. In fact, declares Rabbi Simcha Weinstein in his new book Up, Up and Oy Vey! (Leviathan, $19.95), Superman, especially in his secret identity of Clark Kent, must be Jewish, if only in spirit.

"The Yiddish vernacular has many words to describe fellows like the shy, bumbling Clark ... ," Weinstein writes. "In the comic, Clark is simply called a klutz." Or, as Weinstein writes, Clark is "the classic Jewish nebbish."

Superman's origin story has obvious parallels to the Old Testament tale of Moses. A loving parent tries to save the life of a child by placing him in a basket — or space capsule — and sending him floating/blasting to safety. Found and adopted into a new family in his new world, Moses/Superman is still guided by the wisdom and counsel of his parent. He lives a double life with a secret identity. Moses eventually leads people from abuse to freedom. Superman rescues people from disasters and crime.

Siegel and Shuster never declared Superman was Jewish and probably didn't intend for the public to perceive the character as such. In pre-World War II America, prejudice was intense and open. One reason Siegel and Shuster tried to write for comics was that some had Jewish publishers who would buy from them when other employers wouldn't. Still, the team's early comic submissions used a joint non-Jewish pseudonym — a secret identity — just to be safe.

Though they didn't give their hero a specific ethnicity or religion, there are hints at his Jewishness. In some of his earliest stories, Superman sometimes foiled the plans of thinly disguised German Nazis, whose persecution of Jews already was infamous.

Americans may not have noticed, but apparently the Nazis snapped to the implications, quickly blasting the new comic. Weinstein writes that in 1940, Nazi propaganda minister Josef Goebbels denounced Superman as Jewish.

Superman is just the first chapter in Up, Up and Oy Vey! Weinstein, who admits he once lived a Clark Kent existence using a gentile name, recounts the Jewish influence on superheroes such as Batman, Captain America, the Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man and X-Men, most of whom were created by Jewish artists. But, he says, it all started with the success of Superman.